Health Indicator Report of Homicide

Why Is This Important?

From 2007 to 2011, Utah's age-adjusted homicide rate was 1.9 per 100,000 persons. This is an average of 52 homicides per year. Although Utah has one of the lowest age-adjusted homicide rates in the U.S., infants (less than 1 year) have the highest homicide rate compared to other age groups in Utah. It is the fourth leading cause of death for Utahns ages 1 to 4 and 15 to 24 years old.
Death by homicide takes an enormous toll on the mental and physical well-being of family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers of the victim. The trauma, grief, and bereavement experienced by these individuals have long-lasting impacts that affect many aspects of their lives.

Chart

Data Table

Homicide by Local Health District, Utah, 2007-2011 and U.S. 2006-2010

Data Notes

Notes

Homicides are determined by using ICD-10 codes X85-X99, Y00-Y09, Y87.1, U01-U02. [[br]]
[[br]] *Use caution in interpreting, the estimate has a relative standard error greater than 30% and does not meet UDOH standards for reliability.
[[br]]
[[br]] **The estimate has been suppressed because 1) the relative standard error is greater than 50% or when the relative standard error can't be determined, 2) the observed number of events is very small and not appropriate for publication, or 3) it could be used to calculate the number in a cell that has been suppressed.
[[br]]
[[br]] For more information, please go to http://health.utah.gov/opha/IBIShelp/DataSuppression.pdf.
[[br]]
[[br]] Data are age-adjusted to the U.S. 2000 standard population.

Data Sources

Population Estimates: National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) through a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau, IBIS Version 2011

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS)

Data Interpretation Issues

ICD stands for the International Classification of Diseases. It is a coding system maintained by the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics used to classify causes of death, such as homicide, on death certificates. These codes are updated every decade or so to account for advances in medical technology. The U.S. is currently using the 10th revision (ICD-10) to code causes of death. The 9th revision (ICD-9) is still used for hospital and emergency department visits.

Health Objectives and Targets

Healthy People Objective IVP-29:

Other Objectives

Healthy People Objective 2020 IVP-30
Reduce firearm-related deaths
U.S. Target: 9.2 deaths per 100,000 population
State Target: 9.0 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 population

Current Outlook

How Are We Doing?

The 2011 Utah homicide rate was 1.9 per 100,000 population. In the last five years, males (2.4 per 100,000 population) had a significantly higher homicide rate than females (1.5 per 100,000 population).
From 2007 to 2011, infants had the highest homicide rates among males and females (6.7 and 4.7 per 100,000 population, respectively). Persons 1-14 years old had the lowest homicide rates among males and females.
From 2007 to 2011, Salt Lake County Local Health District had a significantly higher homicide rate at 2.9 per 100,000 population compared to the rest of the state. Utah County Local Health District had a significantly lower homicide rate (0.9) compared to the rest of the state in this same time period.
Firearms were used in 58.5% of Utah homicides from 2007 to 2011 and were the primary method used for both males and females.

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Utah's homicide rate has been consistently lower than the national rate. From 2006 to 2010, the age-adjusted homicide rate for the U.S. was 5.8 per 100,000 population. Utah's age-adjusted homicide rate was 1.9 per 100,000 population from 2007 to 2011.

Health Improvement Resources

What Is Being Done?

The UDOH Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement the Utah Violent Death Reporting System (UTVDRS). UTVDRS is a data collection and monitoring system that will help Utahns better understand the public health problem of violence by informing decision makers about the magnitude, trends, and characteristics of violent deaths such as homicide, and to evaluate and continue to improve state-based violence prevention policies and programs. Data are collected from the Office of the Medical Examiner, Vital Records, and law enforcement agencies and are linked together to help identify risk factors, understand circumstances, and better characterize perpetrators of violent deaths. UTVDRS is currently in its eighth year of data collection.
VIPP also coordinates the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee (DVFRC) and the Child Fatality Review Committee (CFRC), whose members come from various statewide agencies and disciplines. Based upon the data collected, both committees make recommendations to prevent these deaths.

Health Program Information

The Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) is a trusted and comprehensive resource for data related to violence and injury. Through education, this information helps promote partnerships and programs to prevent injuries and improve public health. VIPP goals are to a) focus prevention efforts on reducing intentional and unintentional injury, b) conduct education aimed at increasing awareness and changing behaviors that contribute to the occurrence of injury, c) strengthen local health department capacity to conduct local injury prevention programs, d) promote legislation, policy changes, and enforcement that will reduce injury hazards and increase safe behaviors, e) collaborate with private and public partners, and f) improve the Utah Department of Health capacity to collect mortality and morbidity data from multiple sources and conduct injury epidemiology for use in prevention planning, implementation, and evaluation.

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